A Whole New You
by Queensbaby
Summary: Mai left Joey after he did something really stupid, but when she passed through Domino nearly a year later, she found out that her sweet Joey wasn’t so sweet anymore.
1. Welcome Back Mai!

**_I must say I've written a few dark things but this is one of my darkest stories to date. Joey's turned into a bad boy. A REALLY BAD BOY! Warning: this is not for the weak of heart. If you are and you still want to read than remember that you've been warned. But after you finish crying,'why would she do that to him?' could you review? Please. Oh yeah, constructive critism will be noted but flames will be trashed. Thanks!_**

Chapter 1: Welcome back Mai!

As Mai walked down the familiar blocks, she felt a chill run down her spine. Nine months ago she drove away from Domino City and vowed to never return. But here she was again. Walking down the same streets that she and that idiot Joey sometimes walked down.

Just thinking about him made her blood boil. She despised the very thought of him. The main reason for that being that she wished she could have forgiven him. Whenever she thought about him, the first thing she would see was him on his knees, crying. Begging for forgiveness. She wanted to forgive him, but she couldn't, and she left.

Now she was back, but she promised herself that it wouldn't be for long. As she walked, she looked at her watch. School should have been over by now. Mai wondered if she would see any of the gang while she was in the neighborhood. A car passed by with two blond hared kids inside. One was a girl the other was a boy with dark glasses, smoking something. She immediately turned to see if it was Joey but stopped herself. Most likely it wasn't, and even if it was, she shouldn't care anymore.

Mai continued to walk down the street when she saw two guys walking in her direction. She immediately recognized the point in the brown hair and the dice earrings. It was Tristan and Duke, still in their school uniforms.

Tristan and Duke stopped and gave a hard look at Mai to make sure they were seeing correctly. Mai stopped and waited for what their reactions would be. When she gave the smallest wave, they immediately ran up to her.

"Mai? Is it really you?" Tristan asked shocked.

"Who else would it be stupid?" Duke said matter of factly. "The real question is what are you doing here?"

"Don't get too excited, I'm just passing through." Mai assured them. Tristan's excitement seemed to fade away.

"Oh yeah well, I guess that makes sense." He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked away. For a moment no one spoke.

"So, where is everyone?" Mai tried to break the silence but it didn't work. Duke looked as though he was going to say something, but stopped. Tristan just shook his head. Something was wrong. "Is everyone okay?" She asked getting concerned. Still, the silence continued and even Duke was looking agitated. "Tristan, what happened?" Mai asked more concerned now.

"Why don't we take a walk." Duke said. "We'll explain on the way." Duke, Tristan and Mai walked in the opposite way she had been going.

"Is there something wrong with Joey or Yugi or…" Mai began.

"You could definitely say that." Tristan spoke at last.

"Tell me everything." She felt determined to know what was going on.

"Okay." Tristan began to tell her the story. "After you left Joey sort of went into a depression. He locked himself in his room, wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep, he just yelled at himself and cried."

"Oh God." Mai grabbed her head. She was feeling horrible. She had expected that he might react that way.

"Hold on it gets better." Duke said sarcastically.

"One day he finally left his room."

"Looked like crap." Duke added. Tristan looked at him menacingly and continued.

"Anyway, he finally left his room and we hoped that he would get better. But he didn't." Tristan paused as though what came next was hard for him to say. "He started to pick up on his old habits. Only this time they were a lot worse. We tried to stop him but he was distant. He just kept getting worse. He's gotten to an all time low."

Mai was getting very scared. "What is he doing?" Mai didn't know what to expect. She wasn't very familiar of the "old Joey's" habits.

Tristan was tearing but quickly brushed them away. "Well, he drinks for one, and he's doing a lot of drugs."

"I think he's on marijuana now." Duke interrupted again. "The few days he does come to school, he smells like he is. Not that he actually gets to stay. The teachers hate him. He comes in every few days just to show that he hasn't dropped out, but he doesn't even stay all day. He's about two steps away from getting the boot."

"He doesn't say very much but he's even more aggressive then before. He gets into a lot of fights."

"And he actually wins."

"It's like he can't even feel when he gets hit. And if someone gets on his nerves, he…"

Tristan stopped again.

"He what's?" Mai said horrified.

"He pulls out his switch blade." Duke answered.

"He doesn't know any better!"

"Tristan stop trying to defend this guy! The last time you tried to help him, he nearly slit your throat!" Duke looked annoyed.

Tristan continued to try to defend his old friend. "Well he doesn't! He's high all the time. He's a different person. He wears leather jackets and sunglasses, he pierced his ears, got a tattoo, he never smiles, he never talks to anyone—"

"He's good with the girls?" Mai asked remembering the blond boy in the car.

"Got that right." Duke said. "And he's reckless about that too. Not even you can deny it Tristan."

"What do you mean?" Mai asked growing more concerned by the second.

"He's had a few girlfriends and from what we heard, he doesn't use protection if they don't make him." Tristan looked down as he said this.

All three of them stopped walking. "Girlfriends? A few? Stop kidding Tristan. Half the girls at school could identify his dick in a line up!" Duke said before completely focusing his attention to Mai. "And speaking of his dick…"

"Don't. It's not important." Tristan warned. For the first time, Duke actually listened. "Come on, we're here." Mai looked around and realized where they were. The Turtle Game Shop. Tristan walked up to the entrance. He seemed to all ready have a key and opened the door. "Welcome back Mai."

**_This chapter was pretty mild but the next one is going to be kinda sad._**


	2. He's A Dangerous Guy

**_Watch out for this chapter. It's a bit to take in._**

Chapter 2: He's A Dangerous Guy

Mai didn't think that not forgiving Joey would lead to all of that. She wanted to talk to him and yet she didn't. As far as she was concerned, it was his fault she left him and if he wanted to screw up his life, then he should go ahead. Despite this, she followed Tristan and Duke into Yugi's house. After all, she wasn't mad at him.

Tristan and Duke walked silently up the stairs with solemn faces. She didn't know what to expect now. Once they approached the door to Yugi's room, Duke softly grabbed the doorknob.

"If he's awake, he'll be glad to see you. We just have to drop off his homework." Tristan whispered.

"Why, is he sick?" Mai asked.

"In a way of speaking…kind of. Mentally? Most definitely." Duke whispered in reply. Before she could say anything else, Duke opened the door.

The second Mai saw Yugi, her jaw dropped. Yugi was lying asleep in his bed, his head was wrapped in a bandage and his arm was in an orange cast with writing on it. From what she could see, he was recovering from some nasty wounds on his face too. "Duke what happened?" she whispered.

"Joey." He whispered back and walked up to Yugi's bed. As he laid Yugi's schoolbooks by his side, Yugi started to wake up.

"Oh hi Duke!" He said cheerily. "Thanks for dropping off my homework."

"No sweat. Oh, and I've got some good news." Duke pulled out a paper. "You passed your math test. B+."

"Really? That's awesome, it was so hard."

"And another thing. You've got a visitor." Duke pointed in Mai's direction. When Yugi looked towards the doorway, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"Mai?" He asked softly. "Mai! Oh wow, it's good to see you. Come here." Yugi stretched out his arms as she came near and hugged her in a way she never thought Yugi would ever hug her. "Oh man. I can't believe it's you. What are you doing here?"

"Just passing through."

"Well that's cool. Thanks for coming to see me. I have so much I want to talk to you about!"

"Just a second there short stuff, I need to talk to Tristan for a bit and then I'll answer any questions you want." Mai tried not to reveal how much Yugi's injuries worried her.

"Okay. Hurry." Yugi said, excited. Mai took Tristan's arm and led him back out into the hallway and closed the door.

"Joey did that to him?" She said. Her tone had changed dramatically. She was not only scared but also angry. Tristan nodded his head sadly. "Tell me exactly what happened."

Tristan sighed as he began to explain. "Once Joey started to drift away from us, we all tried to help. We kept trying to talk to him but he wouldn't listen. Said that if we couldn't accept him for who he was, then we weren't his friends.

"Bakura eventually gave up and stopped hanging out with us. Serenity tried too. Joey was actually kind of nice to her at first, but when she started crying and pleading for him to stop, he snapped at her. Called her a pampered, cry baby and if she didn't like it so much, that she should just stay with her mother and cry to her. And that's exactly what she did. When she went back to her mother's house, we never heard from her again.

"I tried a few times but it didn't work, Duke tried like once, Tea tried a few times and Yugi tried the most. He just kept pressing him until finally Joey wouldn't take it anymore."

"I told you to shut up!" Joey punched Yugi square in the face, causing his nose to bleed, but Yugi pressed on.

"Joey please! You're my best friend! I don't want you to hurt yourself!" Joey punched him multiple times in the stomach until he fell.

"From here, it doesn't look like I'm the one gettin' hurt." Joey cracked a smile. He had to admit he was thoroughly enjoying this. Joey kicked him once in the stomach, twice in the crotch, and once in the face.

Yugi spit out a decent amount of blood as well as a few fragments of teeth. "Joey please, stop! I know things have been hard since Mai left but—" Yugi didn't get a chance to finish. Joey kicked him in the head so hard, his head slammed against a brick wall and bounced off it. Blood trickled down the side of his face and his vision became blurry.

The sky was dark and it had suddenly begun to rain. For a moment there was peace, but Joey had come back and grabbed him by the collar. "Don't you ever mention that name again Yugi. Who the hell do you think you are?"

Yugi struggled to speak. "Your friend." Just then Yugi felt a sharp pain in his side and yelled out.

"Get this straight Yugi. I am not your friend and I don't have any. So stay away from me. As a matter of fact, if I even see you again, you'd better pray I'm in a good mood." Yugi felt the pain once again and passed out.

"So that's what happened to Yugi. Someone eventually found him and called for an ambulance. By the time most of us had gotten to the hospital, he was already in intensive care. He had a concussion, he needed stitches in the back of his head, broken nose, three broken ribs, his stomach was one big bruise, a little internal bleeding, broken arm, and he was stabbed twice."

"Holy shit!" Mai covered her mouth with her hands, horrified by what she had just heard.

"The police questioned him while he was recovering. He said he was jumped by some punks but it was too dark to see them. The police might have bought it but no one else did. Everyone, including kids at school knew who it really was."

"And nobody did anything?"

"Oh no, Tea did." Tristan opened the door to Yugi's room slightly. As though on cue, Mai turned and saw Tea coming up the stairs carrying a tray of soup. Tea looked up and saw Mai and Mai looked back at her. Both looked shocked. Tea quickened her pace and smiled.

"Mai, your back!" Tea said on the brink of tears. "Oh my gosh, how are you?"

Mai struggled to speak. "I've had better days. You?"

"Same." There was a brief silence as they continued to stare at each other. "Well, I'd better get this to Yugi and then we can talk some more."

"That sounds nice." Mai said. Tristan opened the door some more and let Tea in before closing it again. Mai looked at Tristan, shocked. "Don't tell me, Joey." Tristan nodded his head. Tea had been as messed up as Yugi. Her head was also wrapped up in a bandage, she was walking with a heavy limp, and her neck was in a brace.

"The day after Yugi was hospitalized, Tea had another little chat with our boy Joey and

things got a little heated.

"What the hell is wrong with you? He was just trying to help you because he's your friend." Joey sat at a table in the school's courtyard, smoking a joint, and had been trying to tune out whatever it was Tea was all mad about. Now he was getting annoyed and looked at her.

"I'll give you the same warning I gave Yugi and I'll say it slow. Shut….the fuck….up! And stay the hell away from me." Joey took a long drag of his joint and blew the smoke in her face.

"I'm not going anywhere until you agree to apologize."

"Well ya know what? You can suck my dick, 'cause I'm not gonna do a damn thing you say." Joey stood up and loomed over her.

"No thanks, I know how many girls have already done that and I wouldn't come anywhere near that nasty thing. I don't know what kind of diseases it's carrying."

"Ouch! That stung Tea!" Joey said sarcastically. "Anyway, I'm tired of this shit so just fuck off."

"You know what? It's no wonder Mai left your immature behind." Joey ground his teeth. She was really asking for it now. "It was your fault she left and now you're throwing a temper tantrum. All of a sudden the world is against you. That's the typical teenage train of thought, right? You're trying to rebel again. If she saw you now, it would only confirm what she probably thought. And that's that she needed a man and not some immature teenager that can't keep his dick in his pants!"

Joey exploded. He grabbed Tea by the hair and flung her to the ground. "If you wanna see a temper tantrum, I'll show you a temper tantrum." Joey dropped down onto her and grabbed her by the hair again. He pounded her head into the ground, over and over again with no remorse, until she had almost lost consciousness.

Bleary eyed, she saw Joey pull out his blade and felt it's razor sharp edge pressing against her neck. She could feel the blade slowly breaking through her skin and prepared for the finishing cut. Tea closed her eyes and said, "You're just mad because you know I'm right." But Tea couldn't stop herself from crying.

Hesitantly, Joey's switch blade pulled away from her neck. Tea slowly opened her tear filled eyes. For a moment she thought she had gotten through to him but immediately felt his hand grasp her throat and shake her. Tea gagged, unable to breathe. He was choking her to death.

"Let's try this again." Joey said, still shaking her by the neck. He pronounced each word to make sure she really understood this time. "I am not Yugi's friend and I most defiantly am not yours. You have no right to talk to me that way. I'm not an idiot. I have my own reasons for what I do, and I don't care if you guys like them or not. Now, if any of those guys try to have this discussion with me again, I'll kill 'em. Especially Yugi. I didn't try to kill him yesterday, but next time he won't be so lucky. Got it?" Joey squeezed her neck harder and shook her violently.

Tears streamed down her face as she struggled to nod her head. "Yes." She wheezed.

"Good." And with that, he slammed her head into the ground, knocking her out, took a long drag of his joint and walked away.

"Tea recovered pretty quick and now she's looking after Yugi." Tristan said.

"How long ago was this?" Mai asked.

"About three months ago."

"Three months?" Mai was surprised. "And they still can't go to school?"

"Well actually they can. Yugi's arm is fine for school, his stitches have already been removed, and so have Tea's. The doctors say that they're fine now but they keep complaining about their scars and their heads so their parents won't take them back yet. Neither of them wants to admit it but…"

"They're afraid to go back. They're afraid of Joey?" Mai asked. Tristan nodded his head. "But didn't Duke say that he rarely goes to school?"

"He doesn't go to class, but he's always at school. He usually just gets drunk or high, gets into fights, and flirts. But he's still there."

Mai had heard enough. It was one thing if Joey wanted to fuck up his own life, but hurting his friends was another. When she walked into the room, Yugi and Tea's faces lit up but they soon realized that Mai looked very serious.

"Is something wrong Mai?" Yugi asked.

"Yes. Something is definitely wrong, and its name is Joey Wheeler." She answered. The room's friendly atmosphere disappeared. Tea quivered and dropped a glass she was holding at the sound of his name.

"What are you going to do?" Tea asked uneasily.

"What do you think I'm going to do? I'm going to pull Wheeler off of his ass and bring him back."

"You can't do that! He won't like it!" Yugi yelled. He and Tea were very alarmed.

"Please don't do it." Tea said on the brink of tears. "Please, we're okay. It's not as bad as it looks."

"Come on Tea. You know you can't talk her out of it." Duke said. "He got into a fight today. One of the girls started to flirt with him. They should be down in his basement."

"Thanks Duke." Mai replied. Yugi and Tea were about to say something but Mai cut them off. "Don't worry. Joey can't hurt me. I'll talk some sense into that boy and I promise that by this time next week, you'll be going back to school."

Hearing this, Tea and Yugi began to cry. They didn't know whether to be assured by Mai's confidence or worried. Before Mai left, Yugi whimpered out something, but Mai missed it.

"What?" She asked.

Yugi said it louder. "He took my puzzle. When I was knocked out, he took it. He left me one piece but I don't know where he hid the rest of it." Yugi started to cry harder. "I want it back. I want him to give it back!" Yugi said his last words softly, as though he was ashamed to say it. "But I'm scared. I'm scared of my best friend. I couldn't help him so he beat me up and stole my puzzle. I don't want to ask him to give it back so…"

"Don't worry. I'll make Joey give it back." And with that, she headed down the stairs. As she approached the door, she heard Tristan behind her.

"Hey Mai, I know he won't do anything bad to you."

"How would you know? I heard the stories. He's different. He's a dangerous guy." Mai cracked a smile. Tristan smiled back at her.

"Not to you, he isn't."

**_Now Mai is gonna get involved, what happens now? You have to read the next chapter to find out!_**


	3. It's Time To Grow Up Joseph

**_The begining of this chapter is what really makes it for MATURE audiences. If you don't want to read the more explicit stuff, just skim a little, the storyalways picks up again. The whole scene is basically an example of Joey's reckless behavior. Go on now. Read._**

Chapter 3: It's Time to Grow up Joseph

Joey let out a satisfied moan as his orgasm burst. The girl, he wasn't quite sure of her name, something like Stephanie, slurped it up sexily before bringing her head back up and smiled. "You have to watch the hair next time or else I'm gonna get a bald spot." She giggled.

Joey lit up a blunt from behind his ear and took a few puffs. "Sorry, I guess I have a thing for blond hair." He readjusted his sunglasses before offering her a puff.

"So does this mean the party's over?" She asked looking at it.

Joey grinned. "Nah, this just gets things started for part two." The girl giggled in excitement and took a small puff before handing it back to him.

The section of the basement they were in was dark, small and lit by a single candle. The only furniture in there was a little night stand, which held mostly drugs; a television, a mini fridge, and a large group of cushions that covered the floor. Joey and the girl were laid out on the cushioned floor; his head propped up on a pillow.

Joey watched, smiling and smoking, as the girl unbuttoned the top of her school uniform. After removing her skirt and underwear, she pulled off Joey's shirt, being careful not to disturb the weed or his sunglasses. She had heard about bad things happening to girls that made that mistake. Once his shirt was off, she noticed that he had a tattoo on his chest. It said: Mai.

"Who's Mai?" She asked, helping herself to some of his beer.

"An old girlfriend. Not important right now."

"That's for sure!" She replied. Joey took one last drag before finishing it and placing what was left on the nightstand.

Joey grabbed her from the back and positioned her on his member, allowing her to get used to the feeling. He could tell from the expression on her face that it was exactly what she must have imagined. He quickly went to work, moving her on top of him.

Just as he was getting back into the zone, the girl stopped. "Wait," she said. "Do you have any…"

"Ah come on!" He said upset. "Why? I know what I'm doin'." He tried to keep going but she wouldn't let him.

"Please, please, please." She pouted. "I promise I can make it up to you." She sexily pulled at his already open zipper and yanked his pants down some more, pulling his testicles from their original position. "Please, please." She pouted as she played with his balls.

Usually people could still kind of see his eyes through the sunglasses but the room was too dark for her to see his eyes rolling back. "Fine." He finally said. "Women." He muttered as he reached underneath his own pillow, where he had a roll of condoms already. He tore off one and waved it in front of her face. "This what you want?"

"Uh huh." She said innocently. She slowly pulled herself off of his erection and watched as he carefully placed it on.

"There. Happy?" He asked after making sure that it was on securely. She nodded her head even more innocently and mounted him again. This time, Joey moved differently. He entered her quickly and pulled out slowly, trying to get the full effect. He quickly began to move faster, watching her breasts bounce. She tossed her head back and moaned.

As he humped her, his newly freed balls slapped against her underside. He felt as though he could go on forever. Or at least for another ten minutes, because that's when Mai made her entrance.

She came in like a gust of wind, without warning. The girl, Stephanie or whatever, was in the process of calling Joey a sex god when she was forced to stop mid sentence by the angry looking, blond haired woman who had just come in. Joey didn't seem to notice at all and continued to hump until he heard a terrifyingly familiar voice.

"Joseph Anthony Wheeler!" She yelled in a voice that even shook him. The girl scrambled away for her clothes leaving Joey high and dry with a hard on.

Joey tried to think of anyone he knew with a voice that struck fear into the very depth of his soul and knew his middle name. There were only two women he knew that could do that so he took a guess of what he thought was more likely. "Ma?" He questioned.

Mai walked over to him and stepped on his stomach. "Yes. That's right Joseph. It's mother. You know, the one that left you about nine months ago." She bent down and looked him right in the eyes. She grinned as his eyes widened in shock and recognition.

"Mai!" He yelled.

"Um, I'm gonna go now." The girl said, now fully dressed and edging towards the door. Once she was gone, Mai removed her heel from Joey's stomach.

Joey stared at her, recovering from his initial shock. Once he was able to think again, he spoke. "What the hell are you doin' here?" He said building up more courage. "Come to ruin my life again? 'Cause if that's the case, I got better things ta do." Joey adjusted his sunglasses and sat up, keeping his still exposed genitalia out of harms way.

"Who the hell do you think you're talking to Wheeler? And where do you get the gall to accuse me of ruining your life? Everything that's happened, you've done to yourself!"

"I'm sorry, you're right. I did do this to myself, because of you! But now that I think about it, you didn't really ruin my life. I'm havin' a hell of a time. Well at least I was until you came in so I'll ask you again, What the fuck makes you think you can waltz into my house and start trashin' me after nine damn months?" Joey was glaring at her and she could tell, despite the dark glasses.

"Well you see I was just walking through, hoping I wouldn't bump into your immature ass, when I saw Tristan and Duke. They told me some interesting things. You've been a bad boy Joseph."

"Figures it was them. I'll have ta have a talk with them later."

"I don't think so. I've seen what happens to people you get into disputes with."

Joey started to grin in a menacing way. He reached over to his nightstand and pulled out another pre-prepared joint. As he lit it, he started to laugh. "I guess that means you've seen Yugi and Tea too." The smoke was overwhelming in the little room but Joey seemed to enjoy it. "How are they? Yugi enjoy goin' ta school at home? What about the blood on their uniforms? Those can be some real tough stains ta get out. I hope they're feeling better now. Give 'em my regards and tell 'em I said, I can't wait to have another little chat."

Joey laughed cruelly, which Mai didn't take very well. She bent down and tried to snatch the joint from his mouth but as she was getting back up, he grabbed her wrist and bent it backwards. Mai tried not to let the pain get to her as she flipped the joint in the other direction and stuck the butt of it into his hand.

For a minute, it was as though he didn't even feel it. Finally, Joey let go of her wrist and held on to his hand as though just suddenly realizing it.

"Took ya a minute." Mai teased. "Now if you try to lay another hand on me again, I'll hurt you. Don't think I won't. I don't like you as much as I used to, so it'll be very easy. So, if you don't mind, pull up your pants so I can talk to you."

Joey looked at her for a second and then sucked his teeth. Slowly he turned away from her and began to remove his condom very carefully. "What's the holdup?" She asked after waiting for a while.

"Keep ya panties on Mai, it's almost off." Joey sounded irked. "Make yourself useful and pull out that garbage pail from under the little table thing there."

Mai gave him a nasty look, which he ignored, as she walked over to the pail and picked it up. She glanced down at its contents and did a double take. There were two or three used condoms in there; the rest were still in the wrappers, unused.

"Joey, this is absolutely disgusting. Almost none of these have even been used." She tossed the bucket in his direction. "Are you trying to kill yourself or something? Really what's your problem?" Joey's back was still turned; his attention focused on what he was doing. "And what's taking you so long? It's a condom, you're not trying to break into a safe or anything, just take it off."

"It's off damn it!" Joey snapped. In an angry outburst, Joey childishly tossed the condom over his shoulder and right in Mai's direction.

"Joey!" she screamed at him but he didn't respond as he started to pull his pants all the way up. "Look at me when I'm yelling at you!" Mai angrily turned him around to face her. Almost instinctively, she focused her attention to where he had been focusing his; his dick, and looked back at him.

Then she did another double take. She remembered how Duke was about to make a comment about Joey's genitals but Tristan stopped him. Now she understood why. As Mai gaped in horror, Joey simply sighed and rolled his eyes, knowing that her reaction would be just like Yugi's and Tea's and Serenity's and all his other old buddies.

"Joey. That isn't what I think it is, is it? Tell me that you have more sense than that. What is that?"

"What does it look like?"

"It looks like a piercing, but I know it couldn't be, right?"

Joey grabbed his dick and rubbed his thumb over the steel stud situated at the tip. "You know, it looks like a piercing to me too." Mai just shook her head and sat down on the floor with her back facing him. As she sat there, she could hear him pulling up his zipper and take a bottle from off the nightstand before he sat down next to her. Finally it seemed as though the worst of the day was over.

He sat next to her, on the floor, drinking from out of his beer bottles. For a long time, they said nothing. Mai was the first to break the silence. "Nice tattoo." She said without looking at him.

He 'humphed' in reply and took another drink. After yet another long silence, Joey spoke. "Sorry about that. You kinda caught me at an awkward moment."

"Please. Any moment would have been an awkward moment." Mai found it hard to talk to him. He seemed like a completely different person. He didn't even speak the same way. "Why are you doing this to yourself Joey?"

"I've been asked that question so many times." Joey seemed to half grin to himself. "But just because it's you, I'll tell you the truth. I'm doing this because I want to."

"What, you want to kill yourself? Because that's all this road is going to lead to. Either the drugs, the liquor, a dirty needle, a dirty girl, or the police if you don't get your act together, is going to get you killed."

"You say this like I don't know already."

"So is that your goal? Death."

"We all die, Mai. Me? I just don't wanna feel the pain of suffering till it comes. I'd rather be doing other things."

"Like hurting your friends?"

"They're not my friends!" Joey retorted, getting angry again.

"How can you say that after all you've been through?"

"Easy. I changed and they couldn't deal with that. They wanted me to be good old Joey again and I couldn't. They tried to say that they understood what I was going through, but none of them knows how it feels to know that one mistake fucked up everything. They don't know what it's like to be down on their knees crying for forgiveness and then be rejected. Everything always turned out okay for them, but not for me.

"And then those guys get the idea that the best way for me to be my old self again is to get over it? And they nagged and they preached, and they preached, and they preached until finally I couldn't take anymore. And whenever I was finally forgetting about you, one of them would bring you up again. So yeah, I hurt my "friends" and I'm not sorry about it. They claimed that they could feel my pain and now they are.

"Now they know how it feels to be on their knees, crying and be rejected and hurt. To loose someone you loved and wanted to grow old with and know that whether or not you'll ever see light again…is all up to that person." The way Joey had said that made Mai remember the old Joey that she loved. He looked like he had been keeping those feelings inside him for way too long. Now that he was done, Joey drained his last bottle.

"You know, that day, I suffered too. Don't you forget that." For a second Mai thought that she was about to cry over causing him so much pain, but she knew that there was no reason to. "You have no idea how much I wanted to forgive you and try to make everything the way it was."

Joey 'humphed' again. "Really? Then why didn't you?"

"Because I was being as immature as you are now. I wanted to forgive you but I couldn't. Because I suffered. You hurt me badly, Joey. You barged your way into my life, discredited my whole way of life, stole my heart…and then it was like you just stomped on it. You had no idea what I was going through. You had the nerve to say that you understood why I was so mad, why I was so hurt. You promised to never hurt me that way again. But how could you possibly have known what you really did to me?

"You pleaded, and begged, and cried, and cried, and cried, but for what? You want to know why I left, Joey? I left because I wanted you to feel _my _pain. I wanted you to know how it felt to be forgotten and heartbroken. So yeah, I hurt you and I suffered for it, but I thought you would learn something. But that was ignorant!

"It's time for you to step up. I know I can't tell you to go back to being your old self because that's impossible. It's impossible for me. But you need to get out of the gutter and stop trying to protect yourself from pain with self-pity. I've already tried that once, remember Doom? I can tell you from experience that it doesn't work. Because sooner or later some blond haired idiot is going to come up and try to set you straight before you wind up destroying yourself." At this, Joey cracked a real smile. She was using the past to haunt him.

Mai took his sunglasses off, revealing large, dark, sad, sunken eyes. There were large black circles around them and the white of his eyes were bloodshot and veiny, making him look somewhat like a raccoon with a bad case of rabies. However, his puppy brown eyes were still hiding there and revealed a sadness that he kept hidden behind his glasses.

Joey had never heard her side of the story before and the irony of it made tears begin to swell in eyes he had tried to disregard. "Looks like the new us have a lot in common." He could see that her eyes were beginning to swell as well.

"Not quite yet." Mai replied softly. "There's just one more thing that needs to be done." The emotions were beginning to flow and Mai held out her arms for him as he doubled over in tears that he had suppressed for nearly nine months.

"What's that?" He was able to get out after a while. Mai tightened her embrace around him. She felt like a mother who was trying to calm her child after he realized he'd been bad.

"You have to learn from it, like I did." Together they rocked for a while. The person she had in her arms was not her 'good old Joey' and she knew he never would be again. But now, she didn't care that he smelled like beer and marijuana, or that he probably had syphilis, or that he had a tattoo and an extra piece of jewelry in both his ears and in his penis. All that mattered was that Joey was changing for the better this time.

"How do I do that?" He choked. Having never thought she would hold him in her arms again he cried in joy. Mai continued to rock with him, stroking his wild blond hair.

"It's time for you to grow up Joseph."

**_Get ready for the final chapter._**


	4. Baby Steps

Chapter 4: Baby Steps

One week later…

This was the moment that Joey had been dreading. It was painfully awkward and he didn't want to be there. However, Mai had persisted until he finally agreed to do it himself. It was at moments like these where he _really _needed to be drunk, but, he promised that he'd stop drinking. To make up for it, he got high more often, which wasn't saying much. But as his luck would have it, Mai didn't want him to be high for this either.

So, Joey entered Yugi's room uninvited, unexpected, sober and not as high as he could have been. Baby steps.

When Joey saw Tea, who was trying to feed Yugi with her neck still in a brace and using a cane, suddenly convulse in fear of his presence, he grinned. He then shook it off, reminding himself that it wasn't funny. With every step he took towards them, they seemed to flinch.

The first person he turned to was Tea who had backed her body up against the wall. He then did just the opposite of what she feared he might do. He used one arm and hugged her softly so as not to disturb her injuries. After a friendly kiss on the cheek, Joey asked her how her head was. Her only answer was to hug him much more tightly than he thought she could.

He then turned his attention to Yugi, who was looking very unsure of what to do. He didn't know what he could possibly say to the poor boy and to be completely honest he didn't feel like saying anything. Instead, he did something much better. Joey opened up his jacket and, from the inside pocket, pulled out Yugi's Millennium Puzzle.

Yugi's eyes filled with tears of joy as he stretched out his arms and took back his prized possession. He struggled to speak but he was at a loss for words. For a while he thought he would never see it again, or Joey for that matter. Joey then turned to leave, not wishing to stay any longer and explain everything to them.

"Joey wait!" Yugi called out just as he was about to leave.

"What?" He said still facing the open door.

"It's nothing." Yugi said after a second of thought. "Thank you." Joey's smile was hidden from view, but he gave a thumbs up as he left the room. Once Joey had gotten to the entrance of the shop, the door swung open and there to greet him was Tristan.

For a second, Tristan looked surprised, then he smiled. "Well it's about time you got here."

"God damn. It's Tristan." Joey half muttered looking like his day had just been ruined. You know; the look you get when that aunt you cant stand with the loud makeup and gawky jewelry comes over and pinches your cheeks, even after you're 14 years old.

"Come on, did you really think you could sneak away that easily?" He said, opening his arms out to him for a hug.

"I had hoped, yes." Joey answered. He simply looked at Tristan's opened arms but couldn't fight him off when Tristan hugged him anyway. Maybe a few months ago when he was still an energetic person.

As he held him, Tristan could see that he kept patting the pocket he usually held his switch blade in. "You don't have it, do you?" Tristan chuckled, hugging him tighter.

"She took it." Joey muttered, but after a while he couldn't help but chuckle too. Tristan seemed somewhat contented by that and finally let go.

"So, where _is_ Mai?" He asked, sounding much more serious.

Joey sighed and took out a joint he had prepared. "She's gone." He answered, lighting it and taking a much desired drag. After blowing the smoke up into the air he continued. "Said she'd be back when I quite smoking." After a moment's pause, he laughed at the thought. "Damn. I'm really gonna miss her."

"She'll be back."

Joey looked at his joint and shook his head. "No, I don't think she will."

Tristan laughed at him. He knew how much she still meant to him but now he was acting like he'd be happier with the drugs than with her. "She always pops back up again. All she really means is that by the time she comes back, you'd better have quit."

Joey looked at him. This time it was the kind of look you give grandparents who take you to places you don't want to go and then meet up with a friend of theirs, so they start bragging about you and all their other grandchildren and pull out embarrassing baby pictures. Yeah, one of those kind of looks.

"So, are you thinkin' about helping me or what?" Joey said, heading out the door with Tristan close behind.

"I think we could work that out." Tristan put an arm around his shoulder. Then, he snatched the joint right from Joey's mouth.

Joey looked at him stupidly and snatched it back from him, placing it back in his mouth. He took a long drag and blew the smoke in the other direction. Once again, Tristan took the joint from his mouth and, this time, dropped it on the floor and stomped it out. Joey looked at Tristan maliciously and snatched another joint from his other pocket, pulled out his lighter, and slowly lit it in his mouth, smiling as he did so.

"Baby steps Tristan. Baby steps."

_**The End**_

**_That's it, the end of this darkened story. Now that your done reading, it's time to start reviewing. I hope you enjoyed the story._**


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